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Broken rudder at sea: what will the insurer look at?
Short answer
After a rudder failure the first question is the cause. Hitting debris or grounding is sudden damage; a bearing worn over years or a corroded rudder stock is often treated as wear and tear. An owner who maintains the rudder and can show it is in a stronger position.
Losing a rudder is one of the serious failures on a sailing yacht. The boat can no longer be steered, in a seaway it lies beam on to the waves, and what follows is often a tow, days in a strange harbour, a lift and an expensive repair at an unfamiliar yard. The causes vary: a log or a lost container in the water, a grounding, coming stern-to with too much way on, but also a rudder stock corroded from the inside or bearings that have been wearing for years.
An insurer will separate those causes. Hull cover generally responds to sudden damage from an outside event, such as a collision, floating debris or a grounding. With us these are accident events, covered from Basis Plus; Basis covers natural perils, fire and theft of the whole boat only. Wear, ageing and corrosion are excluded by many wordings, and then a lot turns on whether a defect led to the failure that proper maintenance would have revealed. The surveyor will therefore look at the fracture, the material, the state of the bearings and the maintenance records. How a wording treats resulting damage from a worn part varies from policy to policy; read that clause in yours before you ever need it.
At sea, safety comes first: make the crew safe, check the rudder tube for water ingress, try an emergency tiller or steering with a drogue or warps, and call for help in good time. Keep the broken parts rather than throwing them overboard, because the fracture is the most important evidence. Take photographs, log position, weather and what happened, and tell your insurer before you commission a repair or a tow, as far as the situation allows. As prevention, look closely every time the boat is lifted: play in the bearings, cracks in the blade, water weeping from it, corrosion on the stock, and an invoice to show the check was done.
Worth remembering
Debris and grounding
sudden damage, a hull claim
Corrosion and worn bearings
wear, often excluded
The fracture decides. Keep the broken parts instead of throwing them over the side.
Questions
What owners ask us about this
Is a rudder broken by floating debris insured?
Under hull cover usually yes, because it is sudden damage from outside. With us from Basis Plus. Record position, time and what happened in the log and keep the broken parts.
What if the rudder stock was corroded?
Then the insurer will ask whether wear caused the failure. Many wordings exclude wear and corrosion. Records of maintenance and inspections help establish what happened.
Who pays for the tow into harbour?
That depends on the policy. Many hull policies include towage and salvage after an insured loss. With us, a tow to avert or reduce a covered loss counts as mitigation cost, and salvage is paid where an authority ordered it. Where possible, speak to your insurer before you agree a tow.
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